Op-ed- Tidal: Cash cow or scam?

If you have been on social media lately, you will see that your favorite artists have changed their icons to a teal color.

They have done so in support of the new online streaming app that Jay-Z has acquired.

Tidal is a new online streaming app much like Spotify, but owned by Jay-Z.

Tidal is the response to the industries frustration to low royalty payouts.

The music industry is fed up with the stealing of music and wants people to pay, which I see nothing wrong with.

Artists want money for their hard work, but do they think an app will save the day?

Under the guidance of Jay-Z, they might stand a chance.

This app will allow the artist themselves to control how you hear their music.

They will bring us more of an intimate interaction to the fan, which is what we all want, if you love your superstars.

But Tidal favors Spotify too much, the interface is almost exactly the same, and Spotify is not charging 19.99 a month to have their service.

“Tidal sounds like it is trying to be a new kind of music app, but is offering the same things for a large price- I don’t think that offering exclusive content for $20 an app is going to be as successful as they hope,” said business major Holly Tessmer.

Spotify is a similar app with 60 million subscribers and 15 million of those subscribers pay to have the app.

The only thing that Spotify offers that makes it so great is its “free tier,” which allows its users to stream music for free and that includes new recently released albums.

Now, Tidal just wants us to subscribe without really offering anything to its consumer besides big names and high quality studio music.

Allison Lunsford- Psychology “Personally, I would never pay $20 a monthly subscription for tidal, however I do understand the appeal,” said Allison Lunsford, psychology major. “With the flood of free media access we have in the internet age, people aren’t going to buy into this app. This is unlike say, Spotify who offers their service for free, if you are willing to listen to commercials and then they offer a subscription for $7.00 for students and little higher for the general public. You have to offer something, even if limited in order for individuals, especially young people today.”

Artists want us to support not steal.

“Tidal to me, is a way for the artist to get their money for their product and thinking it will put an end to the leaking of their music,” said computer science major Tyler Long.

Tidal may work or it may not, but the music industry is taking a stand on how we hear music.

Tidal is still new, and still in development.

There is a possibility that it may change the way we hear music, so don’t count the app out just yet.